Posts Tagged ‘Graduation Rates’

Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce just released an update of its widely-cited 2010 report, Help Wanted. The updated report, Recovery: Job Growth and Education Requirements through 2020, includes projections for two additional years – 2019 and 2020 – and provides pertinent labor market information such as which fields are expected to create the most jobs, the education requirements required to gain employment in the United States, and the skills demanded most by employers. A state report was also released.

New findings include:

There will be 55 million job openings in the economy through 2020: 24 million openings from newly created jobs and 31 million openings due to baby boom retirements.

35 percent of the job openings will require at least a bachelor’s degree, 30 percent of the job openings will require some college or an associate’s degree, and 36 percent of the job openings will require a high school diploma or less.

STEM, Healthcare, and Community Services will be areas of fastest growth but also will require higher levels of postsecondary education.

The United States will fall short by 5 million workers with postsecondary education – at the current production rate – by 2020.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released its annual analysis containing data on the structure, finances, and performance of education systems in more than 40 countries. This year’s study finds that the gap between those with some postsecondary education and those without is widening, with unemployment rates three times higher for those who haven’t graduated high school.

As OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria noted, “Leaving school with good qualifications is more essential than ever. Countries must focus efforts on helping young people, especially the less well-educated who are most at risk of being trapped in a low skills, low wage future. Priorities include reducing school dropout rates and investing in skills-oriented education that integrates the worlds of learning and work.”

The report found that countries with high percentages of “vocational graduates,” such as Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, experienced lower unemployment rates for 25-34 year olds in this category than high school graduates. Unfortunately, data for the United States were not included in this portion of the report. The report also found that more young women than ever, 45 percent, are graduating from secondary vocational programs. In many countries – such as Australia, China, Finland, and Belgium, vocational graduation rates are higher for women than for men.

NASDCTEc is excited to launch a new blog series – CTE Research Review! This blog will feature the latest research and reports about CTE and other related education and workforce issues.

The Council on Foreign Relations released a new report, “Progress Report and Scorecard: Remedial Education,” that has been referenced several times this week by figures such as U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to illustrate the importance of educating and training a globally-competitive workforce. The authors of this report stress that the United States is slipping in global competitiveness and that the achievement gap between wealthy and non-wealthy students is widening. The authors also write that “Human capital is perhaps the single most important long-term driver of an economy,” and challenge the federal government to put in place programs that will expand high-quality education for all students.

ACT’s “STEM Education Pipeline: Doing the Math on Recruiting Math and Science Teachers,”reviews the proposed federal STEM Teacher Pathway program – aimed at getting 100,000 qualified science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professionals into the classroom over the next decade – and finds an insufficient number of STEM college graduates who would be qualified or willing to become STEM teachers. To meet the number of teachers needed, the authors suggest recruitment strategies targeted toward “STEM-capable students interest in education and STEM-capable students undecided of their college major.”

A new issue brief from the Education Commission of the States, “Reimagining Business Involvement: A New Frontier for Postsecondary Education,”lays out research-backed models and strategies to improve the quality of credentials and increase alignment with the needs of business and industry. Suggestions include possible methods of engagement to strengthen partnerships between business/industry and education, the role of state policy in building a statewide partnership plan, and economic benefits for states.

A recent study from the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education examines South Carolina’s programs of study and career pathways developed through the state’s Education and Economic Development Act (EEDA) and finds some positive impacts for the students. The study indicates that EEDA positively impacts career-focused activities at all schools and enhances the role of school guidance counselors.

The National Center for Education Statistics released its annual “Condition of Education” report. Two areas of relevance highlighted by this year’s report are “Trends in Employment Rates by Educational Attainment” and “The Status of Rural Education.” Not surprisingly, the report shows that employment for males and females (ages 25 – 64) was lower in 2012 than in 2008 regardless of education levels due to recovery from the economic recession. Between 1990 and 2012, employment rates for those with a bachelor’s degree remained higher than those with less than a bachelor’s degree.

The report on rural education found that students in rural districts experienced higher graduation rates (80 percent) than students in city (68 percent) or town districts (79 percent) but slightly lower rates than suburban districts (81 percent).

Florida Governor Rick Scott of signed a bill this week, restructuring the state’s graduation requirements.

At the heart of the legislation is the repeal of the state’s current high school graduation requirements – adopted in 2010 to be fully implemented with the graduating class of 2016 – which required all students to complete four years of mathematics, including Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II (in alignment with the state’s adopted Common Core State Standards) and three years of science, including Biology and Chemistry or Physics.

Under the new requirements, to impact the graduating class of 2014, students can choose a career pathway that would allow them to be waived from Algebra II, Chemistry and Physics courses, as well as the end-of-course assessments in those subjects and take more Career Technical Education (CTE) courses or other work-based learning experiences in their place. The Florida State Board of Education will determine which courses will be allowed to substitute the waived academic courses. If students take the new minimum requirements and earn one or more industry certification, they will receive a “merit” designation.

Or, students can earn “scholar” designation if they complete the current graduation requirements, with the goal of this pathway preparing students for a four-year degree.

The legislation includes a strong focus on career exploration and articulates that districts should work with local workforce boards, business and industry, and postsecondary institutions to create partnerships and career-focused courses, which would then need to be approved by the State Board of Education.

The legislation also changes Florida’s assessment requirements by making the currently high-stakes biology and geometry end-of-course assessments count as 30 percent of a student’s grade rather than a requirement for graduation. The Algebra I and English 10 exams will still be required for all students, but also count as 30 percent of the student’s final grade rather than be fully high stakes. Finally, the bill ensures the current economics course requirement includes an emphasis on financial literacy.

The bill aims to provide students with more flexibility and better align high school with workforce demands and many of the provisions will achieve that. However, there is valid concern that the new graduation requirements will mean not all students will be expected to learn – and therefore will have access to – the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The concern is largely around the fact that, unless the approved CTE courses, credentials and experiences are indeed rigorous both in terms of the technical expectations and academic expectations, some students will be tracked into less rigorous pathways, limiting their postsecondary and career options in the long term.

We’ll be tracking the issue and particularly the work of the State Board of Education moving forward.

North Carolina’s statewide graduation rate for seniors concentrating in CTE courses increased to 94 percent, jumping from 80.4 percent in the 2010-2011school year. Notably, three of the state’s county school systems surpassed that state graduation rate, according to a Wilkes Journal-Patriot article.

Seniors concentrating in CTE graduated at a rate of 99.3 percent in Ashe County, 98.8 in Alleghany County, 98.1 percent in Wilkes County. A CTE concentrator is a student that takes at least four technical credits from among courses listed in one of 16 Career Clusters; at least one of the courses must be a second-level sequenced class, according to the Carl Perkins Career and Technical Education Act.

Just one of North Carolina’s school systems did not meet the 85 percent state target of concentrators in the cohort graduating on schedule in 2011-12.

The growing success in graduation rates among CTE concentrators in North Carolina suggests that CTE programs may play a role in engaging students with the real-world experiences they offer to students.

For the first time since all states have adopted a common, rigorous measure for four-year high school graduation rates, the U.S. Department of Education has released preliminary data on how states measured up for the 2010-2011 school year.

Using the new measure, 26 states reported lower graduation rates and 24 states reported unchanged or increased rates for the 2010-2011 school year. However, the new graduation rates are not comparable to those of previous years since a new formula was used.

This afternoon Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke at the National Press Club about the state of American education. Duncan highlighted the Obama Administration’s achievements and challenges over the last four years and offered his take on the obstacles facing public schools in the years ahead.

Chief among the Department’s endeavors are raising standards, improving student performance, reducing dropout rates, and strengthening the teaching profession. But, as we in the CTE community know, education also plays an important role in strengthening the economy and closing the skills gap. Said Duncan: “With more than three million unfilled jobs in this country, [the public] understand[s] that we have a skills gap that will only be closed if America does a better job training and preparing people for work.” The public supports investing in education, but as Duncan pointed out, they worry about where the money will come from.

Duncan laid out the areas where there is still work to be done, including reforming CTE programs in high schools and community colleges, state-driven accountability, recruiting more math and science teachers, and closing the skills gap.

The State CTE Profile webpage, a resource that provides an overview of Career Technical Education (CTE) in each state, has been updated to reflect the latest trends and initiatives impacting CTE in the states. Highlights include:

CTE school and enrollment data

Funding trends in CTE

Perkins accountability outcomes for 2010-11 and previous years

Career Clusters ™ and programs of study updates

State CTE Web sites

Want to learn more about CTE trends across the nation? Check www.careertech.org this fall when NASDCTEc will release trend analysis papers — on Career Clusters ™ and programs of study, CTE teacher/faculty recruitment and retention, CTE funding, and CTE governance — based on states’ most recent CTE information.

Across the nation, Career Technical Education (CTE) programs have evolved from their former job-tracking model, and are now demonstrating significant outcomes in students’ academic achievement and work preparation, according to a recent TIME Magazine article.

Programs in states like Arizona are smashing the old image of CTE. About 27 percent of Arizona students opt for the tech-ed path; those students are more likely to score higher on the state’s aptitude tests, graduate from high school and go on to higher education than those who do not, the article said. For example, in East Valley Institute of Technology in Mesa, 98.5 percent of whose students graduate from high school.

However, decision makers who could increase access to quality CTE programs are still unaware or not convinced of CTE’s value, said some advocates. John Huppenthal, Arizona State Education Superintendent, said CTE is a “tough sell to the state’s education establishment.”

“It doesn’t have the prestige of a college-prep course,” he says, “and it costs a lot more than two-dimensional education to do it right.”

It is clear that shifting perception of CTE is still much needed despite the progress made in sending students to college, providing access to valuable postsecondary credentials and preparing them for high-demand jobs. Highlighting CTE programs that send the message that CTE is learning that works, needs to be heard.

Do you have a CTE program that works? Add your program to NASDCTEc’s CTE Success Map.

In response to President Obama’s goal of increasing the number of college graduates, the Department of Education has developed an action plan for improving measures of postsecondary student success. This action plan is based on the recommendations of the Department’s Committee on Measures of Student Success, which found that the “current federal graduation rate measure is incomplete and does not adequately convey the wide range of student outcomes at two-year institutions.” The Committee also found that “data are not collected on other important outcomes achieved by students at two-year institutions.”

The Department’sAction Plan for Improving Measures of Postsecondary Success seeks to provide more complete information on student persistence and completion by augmenting current postsecondary measures of student success. For example, graduation rate reporting required for institutions of higher education will be broadened to include part-time and other students who have previously attended postsecondary education.

Addressing student truancy in Nebraska has become a high priority for state legislators. In the last year alone, almost 82,000 students missed more than 10 days of school and 23,000 missed 20 or more days. As the state works to improve its dropout and high school graduation rates, Career Technical Education (CTE) is proving to be an effective strategy for engaging students.

Matt Hastings, Data and Research Specialist with Nebraska Career Education, recently described how CTE is working in Nebraska. Though the data does not indicate why, Hastings said, “We see consistently lower levels of dropouts for career education students compared to Nebraska students as a whole.”

Hastings stated that the hands-on, meaningful experiences provided through CTE could be credited for a student’s decision to stay in school. Through a blend of rigorous academic and technical coursework, CTE students receive relevant knowledge and skills to prepare for college and careers.

Visit Netradio’s Web site to access an article and radio interview on CTE in Nebraska. To learn more about how CTE is working in your state, view the CTE State Success Map, and contribute your own example here.